The radioprotective effect of the Cathpax® AIR cabin during interventional cardiology procedures.

Background: The use of ionizing radiation during cardiac catheterization interventions adversely impacts the medical staff. Traditional radiation protection equipment is only partially effective. The Cathpax® radiation protection cabin (RPC) has proven to significantly reduce radiation exposure in electrophysiological and neuroradiology interventions.

Factors that Influence Treatment Delay for Patients with Breast Cancer.

Introduction: The diagnosis or treatment of breast cancer is sometimes delayed. A lengthy delay may have a negative psychological impact on patients. The aim of our study was to evaluate the sociodemographic, clinical and pathological factors associated with delay in the provision of surgical treatment for localised breast cancer, in a prospective cohort of patients.

Use of Barcelona Test for cognitive assessment of patients with schizophrenia.

Introduction: In recent years different neuropsychological batteries have been developed to assess cognitive performance in schizophrenia. However, no test has been validated in Spanish for this purpose. The Barcelona Test has been one of the tests used.

The classification of first episode schizophrenia: a cluster-analytical approach.

Objective: This paper examines, using data from the Cantabria First Episode Schizophrenia Study, the usefulness of subdividing, using a cluster analysis technique, this schizophrenia population into subgroups with similar symptoms profiles in terms of SANS and SAPS.

Method: Diagnostic characteristics were determined using the Present State Examination (PSE-9) and the SANS/SAPS. Premorbid adjustment was assessed using a scale developed combining the Gittelman and Klein's Scales, and the Goldstein's scales.

Cantabria first-episode schizophrenia study: three-year follow-up.

Background: We present the findings from the three-year follow-up of all first episodes of schizophrenia occurring during a two-year period in Cantabria (in Spain).

Aims: (a) To describe the clinical characteristics of the illness from the early stages of the disease, and (b) to study the long-term psychosocial adjustment and psychopathological evolution of these patients, identifying predictors for the course of the illness.

Method: Of the original cohort of 86 patients, 76 (88.

HIV infection in psychiatric patients: an unlinked anonymous study.

Background: Recent surveys suggest that psychiatric patients are at increased risk of being infected with HIV, although very little information is available concerning the seroprevalence of HIV infection among this population outside the US. The aim of this study is to determine the seroprevalence of HIV-I among patients admitted to a psychiatric in-patient unit and to gather linked anonymous risk-factor information.

Method: An unlinked serosurvey was made, using HIV-1 antibody testing of remnant blood specimens collected for routine medical purposes, of patients consecutively admitted to an acute psychiatric unit in Madrid.

Patterns of positive and negative symptoms in first episode schizophrenia.

Background: The aim is to examine, in first episodes of schizophrenia, the appropriateness of the simple two-dimensional model of schizophrenia ('negative' and 'positive' dimensions) and more complex variants.

Method: All patients with a first episode of schizophrenia who, over a two-year period, made contact with any of the public mental health services of the autonomous region of Cantabria in northern Spain were investigated. The psychiatric evaluation included, among other instruments, the Present State Examination (PSE-9), and the scales for the assessment of the 'positive' and 'negative' symptoms of schizophrenia (SAPS and SANS respectively).